Jackie Chan in Chennai, Oppa Teppan Style!!

Teppanyaki is a special cooking style in Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food that can range from meat, seafood to vegetables. (Teppan means iron plate in English, and yaki means broiled, grilled, or pan-fried.)

Modern teppanyaki grills are typically propane-heated flat surface grills and are widely used to cook food in front of guests at restaurants.

Teppanyaki was introduced by the Misonorestaurant chain in Japan, but has gained popularity across the world. And the concept of teppan was brought to Chennai by teppan a few years back. Located in Alwarpet, Teppan is a part of the Oriental cuisine and shares space with Benjarong and French Loaf.

Like any typical Teppanyaki restaurant, we were seated around the Teppan and were served directly by the Chef. The format encourages interaction with the chef, while the cooking style uses fresh ingredients and emphasizes natural flavours.

Done up in Japanese theme, the place looks niche complete with bamboo shoots, Knick knacks and live counters.

Teppan recently launched their set menu. It includes salad, soup, starters, main course, and dessertS (yes you get to choose more than one dessert from the beautiful dessert spread.)

What I tried and loved:

Drinks : We tried a few iced teas, mojitos and a few other mocktails(I don’t remember all the names) fresh and refreshingly delicious.

Mocktails

ToriSarada: Shredded Grilled chicken, Iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced carrots and spicy mayo tossed together and topped with tempura crunch and sesame seeds to create a beautiful salad. Rich, Fresh and crunchy. I licked my bowl clean and I’m not even a salad person.

Tori Sarada

Miso soup : A traditional Japanese soup served with chunky cubes of salmon and tofu. Miso is a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting soybean with salt. Though subtle, the soup tasted simply brilliant.

Miso Soup

Tori Nambanzuke: Chicken wings marinated in sesame seeds, ginger and soy, deep fried and served with tonkatsu sauce. It was flavoursome and perfect.

Tori Nambanzuke

Kaki Age Tempura: Mixed vegetables fried with tempura batter and served with tempura sauce. Low on flavors but along with sauce it was ok ish.

Kaki Age Tempura

NatoruMaki: Sea brass fried and rolled with scallions, togarashi(capsicum), sushi vinegered rice, nori and the heavenly Tempura crunch. It was a treat for for the eyes, taste buds and soul. Yum!Natoru Maki

MainCourse : The Chef took us through the process of cooking on teppan while he churned out scrumptious Japanese delicacies for us.

He chopped, diced, set the entire grill aflame within seconds. He whipped up some amazing chicken, fish, prawn and beef cooked in brilliant sauce and spices.

Served along with ToriYakimeshi – Chicken & Egg Fried Rice, the food was pretty impressive and awesome.

Tori Yakimeshi

The chef keep us enthralled and entertained with his awesome performance thought out the meal. I immensely loved and enjoyed the informative session as well as the food.Desserts : White chocolate mousse, flavoured baked yogurt, banana caramel mousse, dark chocolate cake, mango mousse.. With over 12 items to choose from, I tried most of the items and simply loved the mousse and the pastries..

The set menu is priced at 799 per person. For the quality of food, flavours, the theatrics by the chef, the ambience, service, location and the desserts, it’s totally worth every bit.
Go for the food, go for the flavors, go for the theatrics, just go. Don’t miss when it’s available at such a reasonably price.. I’m definitely going again.

And oh yes, about the JackieChan part, that’s the name of the chef and where action is concerned, he totally lives up to his namesake. Don’t miss him in action!!